Impact of Chinese market segmentation on regional collaborative governance of environmental pollution: A new approach to complex system theory

Abstract The market segmentation among local governments under decentralization of China not only directly triggered the “fragmentation” of regional development, but also hindered collaborative actions in environmental governance. This study adopts a new method to calculate regional environmental collaborative governance using a synergy degree model of a complex system, and then it empirically analyzes the impact of Chinese market segmentation. We find that the regional environmental collaborative governance in China shows a growing trend during the period of investigation, but the level is still low. Market segmentation has significantly inhibited the regional collaborative governance of environmental pollution among local governments of China. The effect of market segmentation on the order of personnel input and capital input is significantly negative, while the effect on the order of policy input and organizational input is not significant. In the areas where the air pollution and water pollution are serious, the effect of market segmentation is also significantly negative. The conclusions are helpful to understanding the institutional factors that hinder regional environmental collaborative governance in China more comprehensively, and provide insights for improving the performance of environmental governance.